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VIETNAM: Christians "Defame" Country
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John Henry
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May 18, 2007 11:12 PDT
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VIETNAM: CHRISTIAN LAWYERS SENTENCED FOR ‘DEFAME’
COUNTRY
Authorities send attorneys to prison for
human/religious rights efforts.
Wednesday May 16, 2007LOS ANGELES
(Compass Direct News) – After a trial of only four hours last Friday
(May 11), a Vietnamese court convicted Christian attorneys Nguyen Van Dai
and Le Thi Cong Nhan of “propagandizing against the Socialist Republic of
Vietnam” and handed down prison terms for each of them.
Dai, 38, was sentenced to five years in prison and four years of
probationary detention (house arrest). The 28-year-old Nhan received a
four-year prison term and three years of probationary detention.
“I reject this trial,” Nhan said after the verdict was announced.
Neither she nor Dai, a Protestant church leader who had documented cases
of state religious persecution, admitted guilt and are expected to appeal
to the People’s Supreme Court. It is the last court of appeal in Vietnam.
In a run-up to the verdict, the state news agency accused the lawyers of
“posting information on the Internet . . . [and] painting biased and
distorted pictures of the country and its internal affairs.” It accused
Dai of instructing his law office staff members to “travel to the
north-western, Central Highlands and southern provinces to contact
Protestant clergymen and their followers who have shown hatred toward the
government.”
The article accused them of compiling “evidence of Vietnam’s suppression
of the Protestant religion” and providing it to the “U.S.-based Committee
for Religious Freedom in Vietnam and the U.S. Embassy. Officials say
theses findings were doctored, distorted and fabricated.”
Their lawyer, Tran Lam, told the BBC that the two human rights advocates
had done nothing serious or anything that others had not done regularly.
He also said that the accused had run into unlawful political obstacles.
They were arrested on March 6 and held incommunicado until May 2, nine
days before their trial, for “national security” reasons.
Vietnam’s criminal code requires a period of investigation by police, an
examination of the charges and evidence by a review body (Vien Kiem
Sat), which issues a written indictment if warranted. This indictment
is supposed to be sent to the People’s Court, which reviews it to
determine whether to set a trial date.
But authorities set the trial date for the two young lawyers, an unnamed
Communist Party source told Agence France-Presse on April 19, even before
the investigation was complete.
During the investigation period, the official Vietnamese press published
several articles accusing the attorneys of a wild range of far-fetched
crimes, including conspiring with terrorists, in their efforts to promote
human rights efforts (including religious rights) and democracy.
In an article entitled, “‘Democracy Movement’ Creates Unrest,” the deputy
chief of the Vietnam News Agency accused the lawyers of being “radicals
that seem driven to fracture the unity we commonly share.” The lawyers
and a young woman intellectual from Ho Chi Minh City, Tran Khai Thanh
Thuy, were accused of allegedly conspiring with “criminals and even
terrorist organizations responsible for kidnappings, bombings and
assassinations.”
The article accused Thanh Thuy of calling on “members of the public to
hold general strikes and mass street demonstrations, or to sacrifice
themselves and plant bombs.”
These accusations and others were posted in English on the Vietnam News
Agency website on May 10, the day before the trial.
In the days immediately following the trial, Vietnam’s official media,
including radio and television stations, emphasized the gravity of the
case against lawyers Dai and Nhan and their supposed extreme danger to
society. The state organs included the Voice of Vietnam Radio, national
channels VTV 1 and VTV 3, the People’s Daily, Liberated Saigon
(a Communist Party voice), The Workers Daily, Youth
Newspaper and many more.
Although family visits to the lawyers were denied on grounds of “national
security,” on April 23 reporters of the state media broadcast interviews
on national television with the two lawyers dressed in their prison
clothes interviewed about their “crimes.”
The Paris-based Vietnam Committee on Human Rights said authorities
attempted to demonstrate “transparency” by allowing foreign observers
such as journalists and diplomats to follow the trial on television but
that technical problems prevented them from hearing the proceedings
clearly.
Prosecutors reportedly said the activities of the two accused lawyers
contributed to “weakening the reputation of the Communist Party and the
socialist regime in the eyes of the citizens.”
Dai has been a member of the main Hanoi congregation of the
legally-recognized Evangelical Church of Vietnam (North) since 2000.
According to Pastor Au Quang Vinh of the Hanoi church, Nhan had just
completed a doctrine course for new believers at the same church in
preparation for baptism.
Both lawyers also have friends among Vietnam’s house churches. Dai is
also a member of Advocates International, an organization which brings
together Christian human rights lawyers from many countries.
END
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